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China Bars Olympics Coverage From Tiananmen Square

BEIJING (AP) — Apparently unnerved by recent unrest among Tibetans and fearful of protests in the heart of the capital, China has told broadcast officials it will bar live television shots from Tiananmen Square during the Beijing Olympics.

A ban on live broadcasts at the square, where Chinese troops crushed pro-democracy protests nearly two decades ago, would disrupt the plans of NBC and other major international networks, which have paid hundreds of millions of dollars to broadcast the Games Aug. 8 to 24 and are counting on eye-pleasing live shots from the landmark site.

The rethinking of Beijing’s earlier promise to broadcasters comes as the government has poured troops into Tibetan areas wracked by antigovernment protests this month and stepped up security in cities, airports and entertainment locations far from the unrest.

In another sign of the government’s unease, a group of Cub Scouts who had been promised it could go onto the field in Beijing after a March 15 exhibition game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres was prevented from doing so by the police.

A person involved in the Major League Baseball event, who was given anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said that “it was never specifically mentioned to me it was because of Tibet that there were extra controls, but there were all these changes at the last minute.”

By resorting to heavy-handed measures, the Communist government runs the risk of undermining Beijing’s pledge to the International Olympic Committee that the Games would promote greater openness in what a generation ago was still an isolated country. If still in place by the Games, the steps could alienate the half-million foreigners expected to attend.

Like the Olympics, live broadcasts from Tiananmen Square were meant to showcase a friendly, confident China — one that had put behind it the deadly 1989 military assault on democracy demonstrators in the vast plaza that remains a defining image for many foreigners.

“Tiananmen is the face of China, the face of Beijing, so many broadcasters would like to do live or recorded coverage of the square,” said Yosuke Fujiwara, the head of broadcast relations for Beijing Olympic Broadcasting, a joint venture between Beijing Olympic organizers and an Olympic committee subsidiary. The broadcasting company coordinates and provides technical services for TV networks, like NBC, that have rights to broadcast the Olympics.

Last week, however, officials with the Beijing Olympics Organizing Committee told Beijing Olympic Broadcasting executives that the live shots were canceled, according to three people familiar with the matter who were given anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the news media.

“We learned that stand-up positions would be canceled,” one of these people said. “No explanation was given for the change.”

Sun Weijia, the organizing committee’s official in charge of dealing with Beijing Olympic Broadcasting, declined to comment, referring the matter to press officers, three of whom also declined to comment.

The organizing committee’s decision may not be final. The International Olympic Committee president, Jacques Rogge, and other leading officials of the committee who are expected in Beijing next month for regularly scheduled meetings could persuade the Beijing Organizing Committee to change its mind.

Coverage of the marathon, which starts in Tiananmen, is also likely to be unaffected, the people said. An early indicator will be a marathon test event scheduled for April.

If the decision stands, it would be a blow to the TV networks whose payments for the right to broadcast the Games account for more than half the International Olympic Committee’s revenue. The biggest spender is NBC, a property of the General Electric-Vivendi partnership NBC Universal. It paid $2.3 billion for the rights for three Olympics from 2004 to 2008 — Athens, Turin and Beijing.

Officials at NBC declined to comment.

The unrest broke out March 10 in the Tibetan city of Lhasa and has since spread across western China. The government’s harsh response underscores the Communist leaders’ unease as the Olympics approach.

Activist groups have said for months that they planned to use the Olympics to promote their causes. But the challenge faced by China’s leadership seems to grow more pressing.

The government said it had foiled a plot this month by Muslim separatists in western China to blow up a China Southern Airlines plane. Foreign activists angry about China’s support for Sudan in the civil war in Darfur said last week that they would demonstrate in Beijing during the Games.

After the Icelandic singer Bjork shouted “Tibet!” at the finale of a Shanghai concert this month, officials ordered tighter scrutiny of all performances.

The Cub Scouts seem to have been caught in a response to both the Tibet protests and the Bjork concert. The police canceled all on-field entertainment for the exhibition baseball games, including the national anthems.

Officials of the Beijing Organizing Committee began signaling their discomfort with live broadcasts in Tiananmen Square to the International Olympic Committee a year ago, but discussions went back and forth, according to people involved.

The square — featuring a large portrait of Mao Zedong — has been a magnet for protests for decades.

A version of this article appears in print on , on page C2 of the New York edition with the headline: China Bars Olympics Coverage From Tiananmen Square. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe